Queen Elizabeth II will visit the former Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp (North) next month, as part of an official visit to Germany, Buckingham palace announced on Sunday. The 89 year old Queen of England and her husband, Prince Philip, will visit the remains of the camp and the memorial for the Jewish teenager Anne Frank. She died of Typhus there. Her diary has become one of the most emblematic accounts of what happened to Jews during the Occupation.
Elizabeth II will also meet Holocaust survivors and some of those who helped liberate the camp. More than 500,000 deportees from all over Europe, as well as 20,000 prisoners of war, died there between 1941 and 1945.
While liberating Bergen-Belsen 70 years ago, the British army took the first photos that showed the world the reality of the Holocaust.
The German president Joachim Gauck paid respects to the liberators last month, and said they had reestablished “humanity” in the country.
The royal couple’s visit will last from the 24th to the 26th of June, and will include a meeting with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(Source: Belga)
